1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a working robot, and particularly to a working robot which is so arranged that a predetermined work thereof is temporarily discontinued when an amount of the material contained or stored in a container thereon changes (increase or decrease) up to a predetermined value as a result of the expected work thereof, it runs to a predetermined place to dump the material accumulated in the container or replenish the material into the container, and it returns to the original working place where the working was discontinued to reopen the work thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, a moving type robot for automatically clipping the Korean lawn grass or other grass on a wide area such as a park, golf links and the like has been proposed, and an example thereof is the lawnmower robot disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 62907/1985 and the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,389.
The aforesaid lawnmower robot is so arranged that markers disposed on the boundary of an area in which is planted the Korean lawn grass to be clipped are detected by a detector such as a magnetic sensor, an ultrasonic sensor or the like in the robot, and the robot is allowed to effect a U-turn action at the point at which a marker has been detected by the detector, whereby the robot is traveled within the predetermined area containing the lawn grass to be clipped and effects a lawn grass clipping operation. The grass clipped by the robot is accumulated in a storing section provided in the robot, the grass is then discharged at said U-turn point at a suitable time, and thereafter the grass discharged at several points are collected in a separate operation from that of the robot.
However, since the place where the grass clippings are discharged from the storing section in the robot is limited to the aforesaid U-turn points in the above described lawnmower robot, the grass clippings become scattered at plural points in the peripheral region around a grass clipping area so that there is such a problem of requiring a means for collecting the grass clippings in addition to the robot as well as troublesome operations.
In the case when it is intended to collectively discharge the grass clippings at a prescribed place for the sake of reducing such problems as described above, it is difficult to travel the above described conventional lawnmower robot to a predetermined place for discharging the grass clippings other than the places where markers have been placed and to return the robot to the original working position where the grass clipping operation has been temporarily interrupted, because an object which can be detected by the robot is limited to such markers disposed on the peripheral region around a grass clipping area.
Accordingly, there has been a problem of requiring a separate procedure such as use of a radio guidance system and the like by which a robot is guided to a place where grass clippings are to be discharged, and then the robot is returned again to the original position where the robot has discontinued the grass clipping operation, when it is intended to collectively discharge the grass clippings at a prescribed place.